“I know we weren’t supposed to be staying, but we stayed and we were up to our necks in water trying to get our belongings out when the ocean came through and it broke down the back door,” retired FDNY firefighter Joe Hutton told Diamond.

“Now everybody is helping each other and trying to pick up the pieces of getting this community back to where it was, and even better, hopefully,” Hutton said.

The community has set up a command center in St. Francis de Sales Church.

“These are local neighborhood people. That’s how still disorganized and chaotic this place is,” the woman added.

But the grassroots relief effort has restored some residents’ faith in humanity.

“I think the community coming together, meaning all New Yorkers, has been unbelievable. And I will tell you, [the Department of] Sanitation has been, wow. They’ve been fabulous,” a Belle Harbor resident told Diamond.

One New Yorker who came to help out in Belle Harbor on Tuesday was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.

“I voted this morning and then as a New Yorker I just thought what better way to spend Election Day than trying to help New Yorkers have what I would hope we all would want our government to provide for all of us, which is not only the basic necessities but a feeling of support and community and what’s happening here is remarkable,” Chelsea Clinton told Diamond.